Food for Oil extension and UN reform

[Seb Wills <saw27@DELETETHIScam.ac.uk>]

2 items

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UN Security Council renews oil-for-food deal for six months 

 UNITED NATIONS, Nov 24 (AFP) -The
 UN Security Council on Tuesday renewed
 for a further six months at current levels
 an oil-for-food humanitarian deal with
 Iraq.

 The 15-member council unanimously
 adopted a resolution providing for Iraq
 to export up to 5.2 billion dollars worth
 of oil over a six-month period starting on
 Thursday.

 The resolution also maintains a provision
 setting aside 300 million dollars of Iraqi
 funds to pay for spare parts that are
 urgently needed to repair Iraq's oil
 infrastructure, badly damaged by the
 1991 Gulf War.

 The UN Iraq programme announced on
 Tuesday that the first spare parts
 contract would be delivered to Iraq this
 week. The delivery is a shipment from
 the Netherlands of demulsifier, which is
 used to treat crude oil and remove oil
 impurities.


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06:05 PM ET 11/23/98

U.N. Assembly pushes back Security Council reform
         
            By Evelyn Leopold
    UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly Monday failed for
the fifth consecutive year to agree on reform of the powerful 15-member
Security Council. 
            The assembly instead approved a resolution by consensus that
would set a high two-thirds majority threshold on any vote connected to a
change in the council, thereby, in effect, killing reform in the near
future. But the assembly said discussions would continue. 
            The resolution also said that council reform could not be
bound by any ``imposed timeframe,'' guaranteeing that the discussions
would drag on endlessly despite insistent calls for expansion of the
council for the past five years. 
            The Security Council has five veto-bearing permanent members
-- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, chosen because
they were victorious allied powers at the end of World War II. It also has
10 nonpermanent members, divided among regions and elected for two-year
terms. 
            With 185 U.N. members, there are nearly as many opinions. 
Many regional powers are seeking to enhance their own chances of permanent
council membership -- or to undermine the prospects of regional rivals. 
            Egypt's Ambassador Nabil Elaraby took the lead in pushing the
resolution, but the document was also a victory for Italy, whose
ambassador, Paulo Fulci, has been single-minded in making sure Germany did
not become the third European permanent member in the council. 
            Instead he has advocated enlarging the number of nonpermanent
seats by eight to 10 seats. While that proposal has its opponents, Fulci
said he was willing to support any increase in nonpermanent seats for the
time being. 
            Fulci's campaign in general has been supported by Pakistan,
which opposes any potential membership for India, as well as many
medium-sized states, including Canada and Mexico. 
            Almost all countries support reform of the council,
responsible for peace and security and whose decisions are binding on all
states, saying that its division of power is hopelessly outdated. 
            Germany's U.N. Ambassador Dieter Kastrup said Bonn had never
supported the ``quick-fix `` solution -- its own and Japanese membership
without other countries on the council. 
            But he said the endless discussions helped no one. ``Aren't
five years sufficient for consideration?'' he said. ``Shouldn't we leave
the field of discussions and move forward to make the politically
necessary decisions.''
            He said the council reform group, called the ``Open-Ended
Working Group,'' could turn into the ``Never-Ending Working Group.'' But
he acknowledged that votes were lacking to force the council to come to a
meaningful solution by the year 2000. 
            The United States, which supports Germany and Japan for
permanent membership, wants to limit the number of total seats to no more
than 20 or 21, a level the vast majority of delegations find unacceptable. 
            Britain said that it wanted an increase in five permanent
seats, three for developing nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America and
two for industrialized nations. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said the
overall size of the council could reach 24. 






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